Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists

[David James]

Office Wortham's response is just the kind of un-common sense approach
that threatens to give the whole APD operation a bad rap, regardless of
its obvious merits.

If the police were to enforce the same "complete stop" rule on every
motorist at every stop sign in this city, they would be writing 10s (maybe
100s) of thousands of tickets a day.  Simple common sense suggests that
cyclists executing a serious slowdown (i.e. the equivalent of a rolling
stop in a vehicle) and taking care to look both ways are not a danger to
either themselves or others.

I hope what we are seeing in this email is just one officer's slavish
adherence to the exact letter of a law that has always been interpreted
with considerable flexibility when it comes to motor vehicles, as it
should be for cyclists as well.

David James

On Wed, October 10, 2007 7:49 pm, Eliz Wright wrote:
> From the APD~
>
> Carl Wortham wrote:  To: Eliz Wright <ewright953 at yahoo.com>
> CC: Yon Lambert, Dianne Gittins
> Subject: Re: Alexandria Police Ticket Bicyclists
> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:05:11 -0400
>
>
> Eliz,
>
> As stated in VA Code Section 46.2-830...Bicyclist must obey all traffic
> signs, signals, lights, and markings.
>
> Therefore, I'll be looking for a cyclist to come to a complete stop at
> each and every stop sign and traffic signal. During the previous weeks of
> bike education, we have given approximately 600 warnings, so most folks
> are aware of what we are looking for in regards to a stop. My goal this
> weekend is to not write any tickets at all, but I'm sure it'll be a few
> that didn't get the word.
>
> Ofc. Carl E. Wortham, 1653
> Alexandria Police Department
> FOB/COPS/Bike Coordinator
> Office: 703-838-6360 x1353
>
>
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